David O. McKay:
1873–1970

“Since childhood it has been very easy for me to believe in the reality of the visions of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” said President David O. McKay to a Tabernacle audience six months after he became president of the Church in 1951. Then, vividly recalling a childhood experience on the family farm in Huntsville, Utah, he continued:

“When [I was] a very young child in the home of my youth, I was fearful [one] night. … Father was away with the herd or on some mission, … [and] I could not sleep. … I fancied I heard noises around the house. Mother was away in another room. Thomas E. [his younger brother] by my side was sleeping soundly. … I became terribly fearful, and I decided that I would do as my parents had taught me to do—pray. I thought I could not pray without getting out of bed and kneeling, and that was a terrible test.

“But I finally did bring myself to get out of bed and kneel and pray to God to protect Mother and the family. And a voice as clearly to me as mine is to you said, ‘Don’t be afraid. Nothing will hurt you.’ Where it came from, what it was, I am not saying. You may judge. To me it was a direct answer, and there came an assurance that I should never be hurt in bed at night.”

Always a good student, David O. became the principal of the Huntsville school when he was only twenty years old. He was tall, strong, agile, and later played football at the University of Utah, where he graduated in 1897. He was an educator all his life, filling a variety of teaching positions in private life and for the Church, both as an administrator and as a teacher. He loved and understood the scriptures and enjoyed fine literature, especially the works of Shakespeare and the poetry of Robert Burns, the Scottish poet from the land of President McKay’s ancestors.

Dignified and saintly, President McKay inspired confidence and an appreciation for life in all who were touched by his tremendous spiritual leadership during his sixty-four years as a General Authority of the Church. He traveled well over a million miles during his presidency, and it was a time when the Church experienced unprecedented growth throughout the world. “Keep busy serving others” was his recipe for continued happiness.

Remembered for his warmth and gentle ways, David O. McKay was particularly fond of children. And they loved him and delighted to be near him. He was always a gentleman in his relationships with others and set a fine example of courtesy and tenderness in his attentions to his tiny wife, to whom he was married for sixty-nine years.

When he was well into his nineties and when time permitted, President McKay would return to his childhood home in Huntsville, where he enjoyed riding over the familiar fields on his favorite riding horse Sonny Boy.

Illustrated by Howard Boughner